.\" $Id: man.7,v 1.154 2025/08/05 21:16:20 schwarze Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2011-2015, 2017-2020, 2023, 2025
.\"               Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
.\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
.\" Copyright (c) 2017 Anthony Bentley <bentley@openbsd.org>
.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Joerg Sonnenberger <joerg@netbsd.org>
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.Dd $Mdocdate: August 5 2025 $
.Dt MAN 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm man
.Nd legacy formatting language for manual pages
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm man
language was the standard formatting language for
.At
manual pages from 1979 to 1989.
Do not use it to write new manual pages: it is a purely presentational
language and lacks support for semantic markup.
Use the
.Xr mdoc 7
language, instead.
.Pp
In a
.Nm
document, lines beginning with the control character
.Sq \&.
are called
.Dq macro lines .
The first word is the macro name.
It usually consists of two capital letters.
For a list of portable macros, see
.Sx MACRO OVERVIEW .
The words following the macro name are arguments to the macro.
.Pp
Lines not beginning with the control character are called
.Dq text lines .
They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text
depends on the respective processing context:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.SH Macro lines change control state.
Text lines are interpreted within the current state.
.Ed
.Pp
Many aspects of the basic syntax of the
.Nm
language are based on the
.Xr roff 7
language; see the
.Em LANGUAGE SYNTAX
and
.Em MACRO SYNTAX
sections in the
.Xr roff 7
manual for details, in particular regarding
comments, escape sequences, whitespace, and quoting.
.Pp
Each
.Nm
document starts with the
.Ic TH
macro specifying the document's name and section, followed by the
.Sx NAME
section formatted as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.TH PROGNAME 1 1979-01-10
\&.SH NAME
\efBprogname\efR \e(en one line about what it does
.Ed
.Sh MACRO OVERVIEW
This overview is sorted such that macros of similar purpose are listed
together.
Deprecated and non-portable macros are not included in the overview,
but can be found in the alphabetical reference below.
.Ss Page header and footer meta-data
.Bl -column "RS, RE" description
.It Ic TH Ta set the title: Ar name section date Op Ar source Op Ar volume
.It Ic AT Ta display AT&T UNIX version in the page footer (<= 2 arguments)
.It Ic UC Ta display BSD version in the page footer (<= 1 argument)
.El
.Ss Sections and paragraphs
.Bl -column "RS, RE" description
.It Ic SH Ta section header (one line)
.It Ic SS Ta subsection header (one line)
.It Ic PP Ta start an undecorated paragraph (no arguments)
.It Ic IP Ta indented paragraph: Op Ar head Op Ar width
.It Ic TP Ta tagged paragraph: Op Ar width
.It Ic HP Ta hanged paragraph: Op Ar width
.It Ic PD Ta set vertical paragraph distance: Op Ar height
.It Ic EX , EE Ta display an example (no arguments)
.It Ic RS , RE Ta reset the left margin: Op Ar width
.It Ic in Ta additional indent: Op Ar width
.El
.Ss Physical markup
.Bl -column "RS, RE" description
.It Ic B Ta boldface font
.It Ic I Ta italic font
.It Ic SB Ta small boldface font
.It Ic SM Ta small roman font
.It Ic BI Ta alternate between boldface and italic fonts
.It Ic BR Ta alternate between boldface and roman fonts
.It Ic IB Ta alternate between italic and boldface fonts
.It Ic IR Ta alternate between italic and roman fonts
.It Ic RB Ta alternate between roman and boldface fonts
.It Ic RI Ta alternate between roman and italic fonts
.El
.Sh MACRO REFERENCE
This section is a canonical reference to all macros, arranged
alphabetically.
For the scoping of individual macros, see
.Sx MACRO SYNTAX .
.Bl -tag -width 3n
.It Ic AT
Sets the volume for the footer for compatibility with man pages from
.At
releases.
The optional arguments specify which release it is from.
This macro is an extension that first appeared in
.Bx 4.3 .
.It Ic B
Text is rendered in bold face.
.It Ic BI
Text is rendered alternately in bold face and italic.
Thus,
.Sq .BI this word and that
causes
.Sq this
and
.Sq and
to render in bold face, while
.Sq word
and
.Sq that
render in italics.
Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
.Pp
Example:
.Pp
.Dl \&.BI bold italic bold italic
.It Ic BR
Text is rendered alternately in bold face and roman (the default font).
Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
See also
.Ic BI .
.It Ic DT
Restore the default tabulator positions.
They are at intervals of 0.5 inches.
This has no effect unless the tabulator positions were changed with the
.Xr roff 7
.Ic ta
request.
.It Ic EE
End an example block started with
.Ic EX .
This is a Version 9
.At
extension later adopted by GNU.
In
.Xr mandoc 1 ,
it does the same as the
.Xr roff 7
.Ic fi
request (switch to fill mode).
.It Ic EX
Begin a block to display an example.
This is a Version 9
.At
extension later adopted by GNU.
In
.Xr mandoc 1 ,
it does the same as the
.Xr roff 7
.Ic nf
request (switch to no-fill mode).
.It Ic HP
Begin a paragraph whose initial output line is left-justified, but
subsequent output lines are indented, with the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf . Ic HP Op Ar width
.Pp
The
.Ar width
argument is a
.Xr roff 7
scaling width.
If specified, it's saved for later paragraph left margins;
if unspecified, the saved or default width is used.
.It Ic I
Text is rendered in italics.
.It Ic IB
Text is rendered alternately in italics and bold face.
Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
See also
.Ic BI .
.It Ic IP
Begin an indented paragraph with the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf . Ic IP Op Ar head Op Ar width
.Pp
The
.Ar width
argument is a
.Xr roff 7
scaling width defining the left margin.
It's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if unspecified, the saved or
default width is used.
.Pp
The
.Ar head
argument is used as a leading term, flushed to the left margin.
This is useful for bulleted paragraphs and so on.
.It Ic IR
Text is rendered alternately in italics and roman (the default font).
Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
See also
.Ic BI .
.It Ic LP
A synonym for
.Ic PP .
.It Ic ME
End a mailto block started with
.Ic MT .
This is a GNU extension.
.It Ic MR
Reference another manual page.
This is a Plan 9 extension also supported by GNU.
It has the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf . Ic MR Ar name section Op Ar suffix
.Pp
The optional, single
.Ar suffix
argument is appended without preceding whitespace
and typically used for trailing punctuation.
.It Ic MT
Begin a mailto block.
This is a GNU extension.
It has the following syntax:
.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
.Pf . Ic MT Ar address
link description to be shown
.Pf . Ic ME
.Ed
.It Ic OP
Optional command-line argument.
This is a deprecated GNU extension.
The name and purpose of the macro match an earlier DWB extension,
but both the syntax and semantics are incompatible.
In GNU and
.Xr mandoc 1 ,
it has the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf . Ic OP Ar key Op Ar value
.Pp
The
.Ar key
is usually a command-line flag and
.Ar value
its argument.
.It Ic P
This synonym for
.Ic PP
is an
.At III
extension later adopted by
.Bx 4.3 .
.It Ic PD
Specify the vertical space to be inserted before each new paragraph.
.br
The syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf . Ic PD Op Ar height
.Pp
The
.Ar height
argument is a
.Xr roff 7
scaling width.
It defaults to
.Cm 1v .
If the unit is omitted,
.Cm v
is assumed.
.Pp
This macro affects the spacing before any subsequent instances of
.Ic HP ,
.Ic IP ,
.Ic LP ,
.Ic P ,
.Ic PP ,
.Ic SH ,
.Ic SS ,
.Ic SY ,
and
.Ic TP .
.It Ic PP
Begin an undecorated paragraph.
The scope of a paragraph is closed by a subsequent paragraph,
sub-section, section, or end of file.
The saved paragraph left-margin width is reset to the default.
.It Ic RB
Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and bold face.
Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
See also
.Ic BI .
.It Ic RE
Explicitly close out the scope of a prior
.Ic RS .
The default left margin is restored to the state before that
.Ic RS
invocation.
.Pp
The syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf . Ic RE Op Ar level
.Pp
Without an argument, the most recent
.Ic RS
block is closed out.
If
.Ar level
is 1, all open
.Ic RS
blocks are closed out.
Otherwise,
.Ar level No \(mi 1
nested
.Ic RS
blocks remain open.
.It Ic RI
Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and italics.
Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
See also
.Ic BI .
.It Ic RS
Temporarily reset the default left margin.
This has the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf . Ic RS Op Ar width
.Pp
The
.Ar width
argument is a
.Xr roff 7
scaling width.
If not specified, the saved or default width is used.
.Pp
See also
.Ic RE .
.It Ic SB
Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default font)
bold face.
This macro is an extension that probably first appeared in SunOS 4.0
and was later adopted by GNU and by
.Bx 4.4 .
.It Ic SH
Begin a section.
The scope of a section is only closed by another section or the end of
file.
The paragraph left-margin width is reset to the default.
.It Ic SM
Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default
font).
.It Ic SS
Begin a sub-section.
The scope of a sub-section is closed by a subsequent sub-section,
section, or end of file.
The paragraph left-margin width is reset to the default.
.It Ic SY
Begin a synopsis block with the following syntax:
.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
.Pf . Ic SY Ar command
.Ar arguments
.Pf . Ic YS
.Ed
.Pp
This is a GNU extension and rarely used even in GNU manual pages.
Formatting is similar to
.Ic IP .
.It Ic TH
Set the name of the manual page for use in the page header
and footer with the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf . Ic TH Ar name section date Op Ar source Op Ar volume
.Pp
Conventionally, the document
.Ar name
is given in all caps.
The
.Ar section
is usually a single digit, in a few cases followed by a letter.
The recommended
.Ar date
format is
.Sy YYYY-MM-DD
as specified in the ISO-8601 standard;
if the argument does not conform, it is printed verbatim.
If the
.Ar date
is empty or not specified, the current date is used.
The optional
.Ar source
string specifies the organisation providing the utility.
When unspecified,
.Xr mandoc 1
uses its
.Fl Ios
argument.
The
.Ar volume
string replaces the default volume title of the
.Ar section .
.Pp
Examples:
.Pp
.Dl \&.TH CVS 5 "1992-02-12" GNU
.It Ic TP
Begin a paragraph where the head, if exceeding the indentation width, is
followed by a newline; if not, the body follows on the same line after
advancing to the indentation width.
Subsequent output lines are indented.
The syntax is as follows:
.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
.Pf . Ic TP Op Ar width
.Ar head No \e" one line
.Ar body
.Ed
.Pp
The
.Ar width
argument is a
.Xr roff 7
scaling width.
If specified, it's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if
unspecified, the saved or default width is used.
.It Ic TQ
Like
.Ic TP ,
except that no vertical spacing is inserted before the paragraph.
This is a GNU extension.
.It Ic UC
Sets the volume for the footer for compatibility with man pages from
.Bx
releases.
The optional first argument specifies which release it is from.
This macro is an extension that first appeared in
.Bx 3 .
.It Ic UE
End a uniform resource identifier block started with
.Ic UR .
This is a GNU extension.
.It Ic UR
Begin a uniform resource identifier block.
This is a GNU extension.
It has the following syntax:
.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
.Pf . Ic UR Ar uri
link description to be shown
.Pf . Ic UE
.Ed
.It Ic YS
End a synopsis block started with
.Ic SY .
This is a GNU extension.
.It Ic in
Indent relative to the current indentation:
.Pp
.D1 Pf . Ic in Op Ar width
.Pp
If
.Ar width
is signed, the new offset is relative.
Otherwise, it is absolute.
This value is reset upon the next paragraph, section, or sub-section.
.El
.Sh MACRO SYNTAX
The
.Nm
macros are classified by scope: line scope or block scope.
Line macros are only scoped to the current line (and, in some
situations, the subsequent line).
Block macros are scoped to the current line and subsequent lines until
closed by another block macro.
.Ss Line Macros
Line macros are generally scoped to the current line, with the body
consisting of zero or more arguments.
If a macro is scoped to the next line and the line arguments are empty,
the next line, which must be text, is used instead.
Thus:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.I
foo
.Ed
.Pp
is equivalent to
.Sq .I foo .
If next-line macros are invoked consecutively, only the last is used.
If a next-line macro is followed by a non-next-line macro, an error is
raised.
.Pp
The syntax is as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.\e" current-line syntax
\&.YO \(lBbody ...\(rB

\&.\e" next-line syntax
\&.YO
body ...
.Ed
.Bl -column -offset indent\
      "Macro"     "Arguments"     "curr and next"     "Version 9 AT&T UNIX"
.It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments Ta Em Line Scope    Ta Em Notes
.It Ic AT    Ta    0 to 2    Ta    current       Ta    \&
.It Ic B     Ta    1 or more Ta    curr or next  Ta    \&
.It Ic BI    Ta    2 or more Ta    current       Ta    \&
.It Ic BR    Ta    2 or more Ta    current       Ta    \&
.It Ic DT    Ta    0         Ta    none          Ta    \&
.It Ic EE    Ta    0         Ta    none          Ta    Version 9 At
.It Ic EX    Ta    0         Ta    none          Ta    Version 9 At
.It Ic I     Ta    1 or more Ta    curr or next  Ta    \&
.It Ic IB    Ta    2 or more Ta    current       Ta    \&
.It Ic IR    Ta    2 or more Ta    current       Ta    \&
.It Ic MR    Ta    2 or 3    Ta    current       Ta    Plan 9
.It Ic OP    Ta    1 or 2    Ta    current       Ta    GNU
.It Ic PD    Ta    0 or 1    Ta    current       Ta    \&
.It Ic RB    Ta    2 or more Ta    current       Ta    \&
.It Ic RI    Ta    2 or more Ta    current       Ta    \&
.It Ic SB    Ta    1 or more Ta    curr or next  Ta    \&
.It Ic SM    Ta    1 or more Ta    curr or next  Ta    \&
.It Ic TH    Ta    3 to 5    Ta    current       Ta    \&
.It Ic UC    Ta    0 or 1    Ta    current       Ta    \&
.It Ic in    Ta    0 or 1    Ta    current       Ta    Xr roff 7
.El
.Ss Block Macros
Block macros comprise a head and body.
As with in-line macros, the head is scoped to the current line or,
for some macros, to the next line (the next-line stipulations as in
.Sx Line Macros
apply here as well).
.Pp
The syntax is as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.\e" current-line syntax
\&.YO \(lBhead ...\(rB
body ...
\&...

\&.\e" next-line syntax
\&.YO \(lBhead\(rB
head ...
body ...
\&...
.Ed
.Pp
The closure of body scope may be to the section, where a macro is closed
by
.Ic SH ;
sub-section, closed by a section or
.Ic SS ;
paragraph, closed by a section, sub-section,
.Ic HP ,
.Ic IP ,
.Ic LP ,
.Ic P ,
.Ic PP ,
.Ic RS ,
.Ic SY ,
.Ic TP ,
or
.Ic TQ ;
or to an explicit block closing macro.
.Pp
As a rule, block macros may not be nested; thus, calling a block macro
while another block macro scope is open, and the open scope is not
implicitly closed, is syntactically incorrect.
.Bl -column -offset indent\
      "Macro"     "Arguments"     "curr and next"     "sub-section"     "Notes"
.It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments Ta Em Head Scope    Ta Em Body Scope  Ta Em Notes
.It Ic HP    Ta    0 or 1    Ta    current       Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
.It Ic IP    Ta    0 to 2    Ta    current       Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
.It Ic LP    Ta    0         Ta    none          Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
.It Ic ME    Ta    0 or 1    Ta    current       Ta    none        Ta    GNU
.It Ic MT    Ta    1         Ta    current       Ta    to \&ME     Ta    GNU
.It Ic P     Ta    0         Ta    none          Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
.It Ic PP    Ta    0         Ta    none          Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
.It Ic RE    Ta    0 or 1    Ta    current       Ta    none        Ta    \&
.It Ic RS    Ta    0 or 1    Ta    current       Ta    to \&RE     Ta    \&
.It Ic SH    Ta    1 or more Ta    curr or next  Ta    section     Ta    \&
.It Ic SS    Ta    1 or more Ta    curr or next  Ta    sub-section Ta    \&
.It Ic SY    Ta    1         Ta    current       Ta    to \&YS     Ta    GNU
.It Ic TP    Ta    0 or 1    Ta    curr and next Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
.It Ic TQ    Ta    0 or 1    Ta    curr and next Ta    paragraph   Ta    GNU
.It Ic UE    Ta    0 or 1    Ta    current       Ta    none        Ta    GNU
.It Ic UR    Ta    1         Ta    current       Ta    to \&UE     Ta    GNU
.It Ic YS    Ta    0         Ta    none          Ta    none        Ta    GNU
.El
.Pp
If a block macro is next-line scoped, it may only be followed by in-line
macros for decorating text.
.Ss Font handling
In
.Nm
documents, both
.Sx Physical markup
macros and
.Xr roff 7
.Ql \ef
font escape sequences can be used to choose fonts.
In text lines, the effect of manual font selection by escape sequences
only lasts until the next macro invocation; in macro lines, it only lasts
until the end of the macro scope.
Note that macros like
.Ic BR
open and close a font scope for each argument.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr mandoc 1 ,
.Xr eqn 7 ,
.Xr mandoc_char 7 ,
.Xr mdoc 7 ,
.Xr roff 7 ,
.Xr tbl 7
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
language first appeared as a macro package for the roff typesetting
system in
.At v7 .
.Pp
The stand-alone implementation that is part of the
.Xr mandoc 1
utility first appeared in
.Ox 4.6 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
.An Douglas McIlroy Aq Mt m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu
designed and implemented the original version of these macros,
wrote the original version of this manual page,
and was the first to use them when he edited volume 1 of the
.At v7
manual pages.
.Pp
.An James Clark
later rewrote the macros for groff.
.An Eric S. Raymond Aq Mt esr@thyrsus.com
and
.An Werner Lemberg Aq Mt wl@gnu.org
added the extended
.Nm
macros to groff in 2007.
.Pp
The
.Xr mandoc 1
program and this
.Nm
reference were written by
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .
